My City2Surf 2009 Performance

My preparations to run this year's City2Surf under 60 minutes were derailed by a combination of flue, nasty weather and good old inertia (the complete list of excuses actually runs longer than the world's biggest fun run!) Anyway, I clocked 69 minutes 9 seconds, improving last year's result by 39 seconds.

The unexpected 'improvement' - after a month of inactivity, my preparation consisted of four comfortable jogs over the week leading to the event - illustrates what I suspect is the exponential nature of the efforts required to improve one's speed. After a certain point, disproportionate inputs seem to require to exact minuscule gains in speed. Conversely, comfortable pace is not necessarily a prelude to a catastrophic loss (or, is that gain?) in time.

In a sense, running, even the fun ones, is all about timing. One has to know when to hold back and when to give all. As my preparation was far from ideal, I checked my impulse to go all out in the first kilometers even as other adrenaline-fueled runners zoomed past me. It was not until after around 10 km that I upped my tempo. When I crossed the finish line, I still had enough left in the tank to run another 5 km. Perhaps, I held myself back a bit too long but this did not prevent me from feeling very satisfied with my performance, especially considering the comfortable pace that improved on last year's result, which was achieved through far more lung-busting efforts.

City2Surf 2009

I will be participating for the second time in Sydney's premier fun run, the City2Surf, that starts at Hyde Park in the heart of the CBD and ends in Bondi Beach. The 14.1 km run will take place on August 9.

My tentative goal for this year is to shave off 9 minutes from last year's time, which was 68' 14'' (The winner, Martin Dent, did it in 41' 12''). It is a big ask. My weekly regime for achieving this goal is as follows:

• At least two easy runs to enhance my cardiovascular fitness and correct my body posture, transforming my body into a lean, efficient oxygen engine


• Trim down to my ideal running weight (which is around 56 kg)


• One fairly difficult hill run to strengthen my leg muscles, i.e. do the round trip circuit from Macquarie Park to Epping train station


• One interval training to improve my pace


• One resistance training session to boost my upper and lower body strength


• Enjoy each training session as much as possible, always keeping in mind Polar's motto: "Listen to your body".